I’m just a guy, a political philosopher in-training, wanna-be equestrian, gamer, and father.

Jul 6, 2016

Hillary Clinton: A slap in the face of all clearance holders.

Hillary Clinton’s continued ability to run for public office is a slap in the face to everyone who has ever held a security clearance. In FBI Director Comey’s brief he stated that Hillary Clinton knowingly mishandled 113 emails that were of a classified nature, including seven that were marked Top Secret/Special Access Program. In his statement that no criminal charges will be brought against her he goes on to state:

“ To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now”

This is exactly my point, that while her action may not warrant criminal actions, it does not make her immune to security or administrative actions. For instance if anyone employed by the government or a contractor had mishandled classified information in the same manner they would have been immediately terminated from their job, their security clearance would have been revoked and they would have a very hard time ever receiving another clearance.

When I was in the military we were always told we were held to a higher standard than everyone else because we represented our country. It is clearly evident that those in public office should also be held to those same standards. However what is increasingly disturbing is that as long as you have money and power you can get away with anything and that the standards that the rest of us are held to don’t apply to you.